Online Assessment Software

The emergence of online assessment platforms for hiring and workforce development has helped organizations to hire the right talent for competitive advantage. With software, recruiters can now easily assess across domains, regardless of time and place.

Interestingly, candidate evaluation software includes customized assessment tests for a highly diversified clientele, be it for the corporate sector, educational institutions, universities, and government bodies, among others. Irrespective of its use for admissions management, administering examinations, or evaluating individual performance, online assessment platforms have become indispensable.

Why Is There a Need for Online Assessment in Hiring?

Going through the routine of organizing recruitment drives, job fairs, and convincing board members of a company are possible scenarios that are not new to the hiring stakeholders. The constant issue of maintaining an adequate headcount for new business requirements, be it a new project, service offerings, and a new line of business, among others, at the right time, is evident.

However, it is no secret that hiring experts have limited functional capacity when sifting through vast volumes of candidates, and the board members are aware of the perils. Several suggestions are usually laid out to improve the hiring process, such as contacting recruitment agencies, creating a job portal, or investing in employer branding activities, etc.

All these methods involve higher costs and are more likely to affect the bottom line. It’s often the case that existing hiring strategies call for a revision, but they are too much of a hassle. For example, calling up recruiters, meeting them, and asking for their time and researching on improving hiring strategies seem time-consuming propositions.

That being said, there are guaranteed ways to enhance the efficacy of the hiring process with three easy steps. Online proctored tests and interviews are good options to secure candidates from Tier-2 and 3 colleges, who, otherwise, are out of bounds. Apart from being the safest mode of employee engagement, online assessment platforms can fill the gap of the shortage of talent.

How Different Sectors Are Using Online Assessment Software

1. Corporate Sector

The shift from manual to automated processes is continual. However, it is an alarming fact that numerous recruiters yet consider traditional hiring practices to meet their needs. Organizations are taking to online assessment platforms to speed up their recruitment processes and onboard the best talent with the least possible effort and time.

The ease with which the potential of entry-level and experienced professionals are assessed using automated tools and online assessments highlight the practicality of the platform. Moreover, the platform assists companies in making data-driven recruitment decisions to hire the best talent and identify the essential needs of the workforce. Undoubtedly, organizations have greater leeway to assess candidates for cognitive, behavioral, and communication skills, and to measure their domain knowledge.

An organization is only as good as its best employees. A well-thought-out, strategic approach to adopting assessment-based hiring greatly supports in identifying and retaining the best talent. These assessment platforms speed up processes, enabling companies to assess high volumes of candidates, optimize their recruitment process, bring down costs, and improve the quality of hires.

As organizational needs are ever-evolving, assessment software are useful in matching candidates’ skill sets to organizational requirements. Additionally, these platforms can help facilitate upskilling programs for developing the workforce for emerging opportunities. Using software’s proven assessments, employers recruit and retain high potential candidates with the utmost ease, which translates to enhanced productivity and better job performance.

2. Educational Institutions

Outdated exam delivery methods have made way for digital means. With the advent of online examination management systems, the examination process has become more streamlined, be it a semester or entrance test. And it bodes well for universities and colleges that want to ensure quality education, alongside the in-depth analysis of students’ knowledge and skills. Reinventing examination models through online assessment is important for every organization amid digitalization.

Test administrators need the ease of measuring relevant competencies with precision while keeping exams updated and relevant, without the concern on impersonation. Ensuring transparency while administering examinations is critical for getting valid and reliable results.

3. Government Sector

The public sector is also not left untouched by the aspects of using online assessment software. These computer-based assessment solutions are useful in recruiting top talent for various state and central government departments. An in-depth skill assessment, backed by analytics and well-defined test reports, can help to identify credible candidates in a very short timeframe.

Public sector organizations are up for recruiting highly skilled professionals in a competitive market. Despite that, there are fewer available public sector positions for applicants, making it difficult for government agencies to find potential candidates.

What Features to Look for in an Online Assessment Software?

Here’s a rundown of the features you must look for in an assessment platform:

1. An Assessment Battery

When measuring candidates’ skill sets, personality, and abilities, an assessment battery is the most efficient method. A test battery is a set of tests, clustered together, aimed at evaluating candidates’ reasoning and problem-solving skills for a particular position. Assessment batteries vary from role to role, based on the needs of the employers and job requirements.

For instance, organizations that are looking to hire coders may want to administer a coding test to assess the applicant's knack for coding. They may also want to administer a psychometric test to evaluate important positive characteristics such as trustworthiness, honesty, and motivation. Similarly, administering cognitive tests would simplify technical hiring and training for organizations. Then there are tests like aptitude, sales profiler, and domain, which not only critically assess sales competencies but also ascertain the functional skill of teams. All these tests, combined, constitute a test battery, which can also be administered as a sequence of assessments.

2. Integrated Platform

Implementing spot-on hiring processes using the best candidate evaluation software is critical. There’s nothing like a self-manageable online platform that structures online interviews and encompasses scientific assessments in a streamlined workflow. Such a platform works well in streamlining the recruitment process, whether it be for keeping track of applicants, or evaluating them via assessments, or interviewing them.

There are some excellent features typical of an excellent online software platform: candidate management, online assessment, and online interviews. Concerning the candidate management, it is imperative that the platform adequately manages applicants and creates customizable workflows effortlessly. It should include a plethora of different assessments to evaluate candidates for varying roles and responsibilities. Moreover, conducting online interviews should include collaborative tools, alongside provisions to immaculately grade and maintain records digitally.

3. Customization

A bland-looking assessment platform cannot strike a chord with respondents, which brings to the fore the need for a customizable assessment platform that suits all needs. Such a platform allows users to either pick a custom-built test from its vast library or helps them to create their test by either using standardized questions or providing an option to add new questions, depending on a job-specific competency framework.

The responsiveness of the platform is also important in every aspect of the user experience - adaptability across all screen sizes doesn’t restrict users from accessing the tool in different devices. An effective assessment system is well-equipped to conduct systematic and fair assessments. It’s also scalable enough to perform a multitude of tests, namely psychometric, aptitude, cognitive, and coding, to name a few.

4. Better Candidate Experience

A robust assessment platform caters to the varied needs of businesses seeking to build a strong HiPo pipeline, renew their training and development processes, and create effective talent acquisition strategies. What makes a platform high on features is the one that also considers the candidate experience. In addition to an easy user interface, questions available on the platform should be in a language comprehensible to the candidates. It helps a candidate to take those tests which are created with precision, not to mention the added support of images, videos, flash, and other rich media content.

5. Online Proctoring

Reliability and security are the two crucial features of a credible candidate evaluation software. Conducting an assessment in a highly cheating-proof environment is critical for evaluators. Consequently, it will become much easier for examiners to detect all forms of malpractices using AI-backed, anti-cheat solutions that include real-time monitoring, secure browsing, and authenticity check.

Administering examinations on a large scale is no mean feat, but online remote proctoring makes it reasonably easy to prevent candidates from cheating. It stands to reason that those indulging in malpractices can be kept at bay with essential features such as facial recognition, multiple device detection, device detection, and distraction detection, etc. A secure online assessment platform ensures that any candidate who indulges in cheating gets flagged during the examination.

6. Data Security

With the objective of data security, assessment platforms assure safety. There is much at stake while monitoring the applicant’s activity during an online assessment, which includes everything ranging from candidate’s data, and question sets to benchmarking reports.

Hence organizations must have their data stored in the cloud. If the online assessment data is well encrypted, the chances of misusing it are minimized. Data encryption prevents unauthorized access to question sets. Undoubtedly, employers can be assured of the sanctity of the results in such a secure environment.

7. Different Types of Test Questions

Ascertaining the justifiability of assessments without the inclusion of competency questions would be a futile exercise. Evaluators need to include a variety of question types in their assessment platform to measure candidates' knowledge levels.

Below are some commonly used question types that aim to give better understanding of the candidate’s thought process:

Case Studies

Multiple Choice Questions

Subjective Writing

Coding Simulators

Guesstimate Questions

Diagram-Based Questions

Spreadsheet Questions

Fill-in-the-blank Questions

8. Analytical Reports

An in-depth analysis of an individual's performance is possible with comprehensive analytical reports, which are generated by the assessment software. What makes software worth-considering is its ability to tailor-make the offerings as per the clients’ needs.

Custom reports are more helpful in providing key insights into candidates’ performance than standard template reports. When it comes to catering to specific organizational needs, flexible reporting is a quicker, more convenient way of going about it. Today, a data-driven recruitment strategy is the best approach to hiring top-quality employees.

9. White Labelling

A white label is a legal approval to allow one party to place its brand name on a product/service produced by another party, typically for a reasonable fee. White labeling boosts a brand's public awareness and enhances the credibility of the company’s products/services.

Online assessment platforms that consist of white-labeling features can help organizations to build a strong brand around themselves, rather than accrediting someone else for the services rendered. These platforms make it easy to customize the testing interface for companies to reflect their brand’s personality succinctly. Besides, they take personalization to another level by allowing brands to upload their logo, change the interface background, and the color scheme as needed.

10. Secure API Support

It’s well-known that APIs have made life much easier by reducing the need for human intervention and allowing the construction of custom workflows that significantly reduce cost, time, and efforts. With APIs, users or companies can customize their most-in-demand services. API is a software-to-software interface with its own set of programming standards and instructions that allow easy access to a web-based software application.

Moreover, it’s quite evident to see some of the most sought-after online assessment platforms, releasing their APIs so that web developers can work conveniently with these core applications. For example, Mercer-Mettl's assessment platform offers its REST APIs that work exceptionally with search engines, and seamlessly supports all major LMSs - Moodle and Blackboard, to name a few.

11. 24x7 Support

Providing round the clock support to the customers would make for a useful feature. An online assessment platform is regarded as a trustworthy product if it sincerely addresses customers’ queries. Even though it is expected of the service providers to support their clients at all times, not many meet customer expectations. It all boils down to keeping specific points in mind as a service provider:

Having a capable customer support team and sincere account managers to solve clients problems

Providing 24X7 software support to help customers at every step of their journey

Providing the ease of connecting via phone, chat, or email for clarification on any doubts or queries

Mercer | Mettl’s online assessment platform is a holistic tool for effectively conducting recruitment, campus hiring, training, succession planning, certifications test, and much more. The platform is built for accuracy and efficiency and supports a wide variety of assessments such as psychometric, language proficiency, domain, and cognitive. These assessments are safeguarded against cheating through online proctoring. Each of the features mentioned above is available on this platform, ensuring that customers are provided with the best possible means of assessment at one touch-point.

Conclusion

Seeking to hire the right candidate without having a strategic approach is an exercise in futility. Hiring managers can make better hiring decisions by opting for data-driven evaluation of candidates, which makes the online assessment platform a critical element of organizational progress.